Haymarket: A year later for the Senators

By Joe Conroy

Published: July 26, 2008

When the Rivalry Group took over the Haymarket Senators last July, there were plenty of issues to be tended to even with just four games remaining on the schedule.

Scott Newell, a member of the new ownership group, said at the time that he and his fellow owners had “a million plans” for the 2008 season, their first in sole control of the team.

While they may not have gotten to the entire million, Newell and partner Bernie Schaffler feel they are right on schedule with rebuilding the Valley Baseball League franchise’s image on and off the field.

“Overall we’re very happy,” Newell said. “Things have gone pretty much as expected. We were expecting a few surprises here and there and they came about. It wasn’t anything that we couldn’t handle.”

By July 7 the Senators had already won more games in ‘08 than they had all of 2007 when they went 11-32-1, and are battling for a playoff spot, both goals the owners set for the on-field product.

“I would say baseball-wise we’re probably ahead,” Newell said. “(Off the field) I think we ran into the challenges we were expecting. I would say we’re probably on pace — I wouldn’t say we’re behind.”

Of course, there have been challenges and surprises along the way, too.

One of the biggest surprises was the attrition rate on the Senators’ roster. Though both Newell and Schaffler were aware of players leaving the team after disputes over playing time, they were both caught off-guard this year.

As opposed to previous seasons, Newell and Schaffler felt they and the coaching staff (headed by Frostburg State’s Bill Shields to start the year) provided realistic playing time scenarios to each player that committed his summer to the program.

“We thought we had addressed all those things so these guys were happy, happy to be here and were going to stick around,” Newell said. “Up to a certain point we had the same attrition rate — of course, when things really fell apart with the previous owner, we had several people leave; I count that as an anomaly. We had a pretty steady attrition here, so that was sort of a surprise to us.”

Newell estimates the losses at around six or seven players since the season began May 31.

“To me that’s the toughest,” Schaffler said. “Most of these kids have been starters at their college. Now they get to another level and they’re not starting every game.”

Another challenge has been something every team deals with: injuries.

With the turmoil and issues Haymarket has fought through in recent years, the normalcy of injuries is almost a welcome challenge.

Almost.

The Senators lost two of their top pitchers at the start of the year in Virginia Tech’s Rob Waskiewic and Mike Errigo from Stoney Brook. Waskiewic recorded the save in the first game of the year but has not pitched since. Errigo pitched only three times in a Senators uniform before leaving due to injury.

In all, the team has lost eight players this year to injury or illness, two coming after the July 15 signing deadline for adding new players.

“You look down the bench to potentially pinch-hitting for someone and there’s nobody there,” Newell said. “We are essentially an injury away from having a pitcher playing right field.”

Off the field ownership believes it has found its legs and is well on its way to reaching its goal.

“We knew there were going to be a lot of lessons learned coming into this,” Schaffler said. “The big goal was to take the next step and get more awareness in the community (in volunteers and interest). I think we’re getting there. I think it’s a little slower than I had hoped, but some nights it’s really good.”

This year the fan support has been noticeably better at Battlefield High School where the Senators call home. Haymarket is averaging about 225 in paid attendance for home contests according to Newell, a number well above what the team drew last season.

Shields threw a potential wrench into the plans when he abruptly resigned from his head coaching position July 21. Pitching coach Ryan Fecteau was immediately promoted to interim-head coach and then permanent head coach for the remainder of the year.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Newell said. “Fecteau is the head coach and he’s also accepted the position for next year.

“We’ll take the lessons learned from this season and apply that to next season.”